A week in to my LinkedIn Experiment and I have been reading a lot of interesting posts about LinkedIn! I decided the logical first step was to work on my profile. Based on my readings I did the following (and suggest you do to!):

1) Update your headline

This is what shows up right below your name on your profile.

You get 120 characters to describe yourself. Keep in mind people may not even see the entire 120 characters so start with the most important information. I went with:

Social media strategist & coach. Passionate about teaching business owners to use social media to grow their businesses

2) Update your summary

This is your opportunity to describe what you do. Make sure it REALLY highlights what makes you unique and special. Why do you do what you do?

Here is my current summary:

As a social media strategist and coach I help people understand and use social media through the creation of strategies, with one on one coaching, and through training.

My background in public relations and web communications, combined with my personal love of social media, has given me the ideal skills to help people figure out this new way of communicating with a business audience.

Specialties

3) Update employment history

When is the last time you made sure all of your employment history was up to date on LinkedIn - now’s the time.

4) Information order

You can reorder all the information in your profile by hovering over the different sections and clicking and dragging. Are your skills more important than your education? Your recommendations more important than your employment?

I had no idea you could do this! I moved my personal information down (my marital status and year of birth aren’t important enough to have front and center) and my experience and references up.

My LinkedIn profile feels a little bit more personalized and efficient now. Next I will be exploring the world of groups!